Chan Toi alias Chan Tauch
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-921
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Background and Role
Chan Toi alias Chan Tauch was a messenger for the Koh Nkek District Secretary.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Chan Toi’s testimony in finding that: (i) people connected to the Sector 105 Deputy Secretary were arrested and detained at K-17;
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(ii) detainees were held in inhumane and unhygienic conditions
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; and (iii) some detainees at K-17 were taken away and executed.
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Arrest and Transfer to K-17
Chan Toi described being part of a group of over 80 people who were arrested in late 1977
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as a result of being in Sector Deputy Secretary, Kham Phoun’s, network because his supervisor and wife were related to Kham Phuon.
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He stated that the Communist Party of Kampuchea regime had a policy to arrest and kill former Khmer Republic soldiers or those accused of being spies, including the Vietnamese.
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He also recounted that, after leaders in the upper line disappeared, their subordinates were denounced as traitors and were arrested along with their relatives.
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He recalled being taken to K-17, the office of Sector 105,
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located in Phnom Kraol.
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To his recollection, the site comprised a two-storey building with wooden upper floor and walls and a corrugated iron roof.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Chan Toi’s testimony in finding that: (i) Chan Toi was arrested by the Sector Military in November 1977 along with his whole family and 80 other people from the district, and subsequently detained at K-17;
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(ii) military personnel associated with enemies were routinely purged down the chain of command, and relatives of those arrested were similarly condemned, arrested, and detained or executed;
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(iii) upper echelons progressively denounced, arrested, and detained and/or executed cadres suspected of collaborating, communicating, or otherwise dealing with Vietnamese forces, civilians, or relatives;
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(iv) K-17 was one of the offices that constituted the Phnom Kraol Security Centre
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and was located on the road from Kaoh Nheaek to Kratie at the north-western foot of Phnom Kraol;
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and (v) the site comprised a two-storey concrete main building with wooden upper floor and walls and a corrugated iron roof.
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Internal Purge in Sector 105
According to Chan Toi, the Chief of Sector 105 directly oversaw K-17’s operations.
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He described that the Sector 105 committee was headed by Laing alias Chhan or Ham as Secretary and Kham Phoun (later replaced by Phan Khoun) as Deputy Secretary,
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noting that Sao Sarun was later appointed to replace Laing after the latter’s death in late 1977.
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He also recounted that Sao Sarun arrested those who were linked to Kham Phoun,
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and confirmed that Laing was arrested for being a member of “Kham Phoun’s network”.
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He added that both Laing and Kham Phoun exchanged fire and died in Phnom Penh.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Chan Toi’s testimony in finding that: (i) the Sector 105 Chairman directly oversaw K-17’s operations;
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(ii) from late 1976 to late 1977, the Sector 105 Committee was headed by Laing (later replaced by Sao Sarun)
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as Secretary with Kham Phoun serving as Deputy Secretary in charge of economic affairs, and who was later replaced by Phan Khoun;
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(iii) Kham Phoun was denounced as a Vietnamese collaborator following his death, and his family and known associates were arrested and later disappeared;
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and (iv) Laing and Kham Phoun died under suspicious circumstances after a physical altercation in Phnom Penh in late 1977.
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Detention at K-17
Chan Toi testified that, while he was detained at K-17,
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he witnessed his family being taken away in trucks and never seen again.
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He stated that, although he had neither been interrogated during detention
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nor personally witnessed any executions
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or gravesites,
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he knew people were taken away and shot dead without legal representation or access to a court, thus he felt a sense of hopelessness while waiting for his own death.
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He recounted that around 80 prisoners were detained on the ground floor of K-17’s main office in 1977,
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where they were placed in wooden wrist shackles during the day and tied with rope in a row of chairs
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so they could stomp jute seeds for periods of one to two hours.
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According to Chan Toi, men and women were shackled and tied in separate rows, while children were not restrained.
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He further described that K-17 was unhygienic and he was not once permitted to bathe during his month-long incarceration and had only one set of clothes throughout,
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which resulted in prisoners suffering from skin diseases for which no medication was provided,
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though instances of more serious conditions including diarrhoea and dysentery or death were uncommon at K-17.
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In addition to having insufficient food and water,
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he stated that no blankets or sleeping mats were provided at K-17.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Chan Toi’s testimony in finding that: (i) prisoners were removed from detention at K-17, put in trucks, and never heard from again;
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(ii) people were brought to K-17 without legal representation or access to a court;
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(iii) female and male prisoners were separately shackled during the course of their detention at K-17, but that leg shackling was relaxed during work assignments and children at K-17 were not restrained;
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and (iv) prisoners were exposed to substandard conditions of hygiene and detention, but these conditions did not lead to serious diseases or death.
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The Supreme Court Chamber also referred to Chan Toi’s testimony in rejecting Khieu Samphan’s argument on appeal that the only witnesses the Trial Chamber heard concerning disappearances at K-17 were not held there,
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since the Trial Chamber relied on the testimony of Chan Toi, who was in fact held at K-17 and spoke of disappearances he witnessed from K-17.
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